The Montgomery County History Digital Repository
The Montgomery County History Digital Repository (MCHDR) collects, preserves and distributes digital material of and about Montgomery County, Maryland, USA.
This repository is a service of Montgomery History whose mission is to collect, preserve, interpret and share the histories of all of Montgomery County’s residents.
Recent Submissions
Item A Daunting Mission: the Freedman's Bureau in Montgomery County(Montgomery History, 2025-10)The Freedmen’s Bureau, the first federal agency to have direct contact with citizens, was established after the Civil War to help the formerly enslaved transition to a life of freedom and self-sufficiency—and ultimately to ensure their enjoyment of rights as citizens. And it had a presence—and an important one at that—in Montgomery County, carrying out two primary functions: to establish schools for Black residents and to intervene in injustices committed against the formerly enslaved by white residents. In Montgomery County, these tasks fell to Lt. R.G. Rutherford, an Army lieutenant who held the position of superintendent of a countywide Freedmen’s Bureau office in Rockville, in operation only from May 1866 to October 1867. Often in the face of hostility, Rutherford helped to lay the groundwork for ten Black schools that later become part of the public school system and handled myraid claims of mistreatment brought to him by Black county residents.Item The Montgomery County Poor Farm & Almshouse: Its History and People. Part 2: The Poor Farm in the 20th Century(Montgomery History, 2025-07-08)From 1789 through 1948, the Montgomery County Poor Farm and Almshouse were part of the county’s program to assist the poor. It was the last resort for people with no money, no home, and no family or social network to support them. Poor people ended up there for various reasons, such as being too old or sick to care for themselves, suffering mental illness or intellectual disability, or enduring physical disability, blindness, or deafness. The Almshouse was also intended to be a place of work for able-bodied poor people who were sent there by the county court or who went there on their own. Part 2 of this two-part history covers the long and difficult transition from the outdated "poor farm" model of care for the indigent poor and mentally ill, to equally problematic state hospitals and care facilities, spurred on by the efforts of early social reform and welfare groups throughout Montgomery County and the state of Maryland.Item The Montgomery County Poor Farm & Almshouse: Its History and People. Part 1: Origins through the Nineteenth Century(Montgomery History, 2025-03)From 1789 through 1948, the Montgomery County Poor Farm and Almshouse were part of the county’s program to assist the poor. It was the last resort for people with no money, no home, and no family or social network to support them. Poor people ended up there for various reasons, such as being too old or sick to care for themselves, suffering mental illness or intellectual disability, or enduring physical disability, blindness, or deafness. The Almshouse was also intended to be a place of work for able-bodied poor people who were sent there by the county court or who went there on their own. Part 1 of this two-part history spanning more than 60 years features an in-depth look at not only the founding and operational history of the Almshouse, but the stories of people who lived there amid stark, destitute, and often dehumanizing conditions.Item Plate 11A-11B-11E-11F(Deets and Maddox, 1917)This collection contains individual plates from "A Real Estate Atlas of the Part of Montgomery County, Maryland Adjacent to the District of Columbia," by Edward H. Deets and Charles J. Maddox, based on surveys taken in 1916 and published as a single volume in 1917.Item Title Page(Deets and Maddox, 1917)This collection contains individual plates from "A Real Estate Atlas of the Part of Montgomery County, Maryland Adjacent to the District of Columbia," by Edward H. Deets and Charles J. Maddox, based on surveys taken in 1916 and published as a single volume in 1917.
Communities in MCHDR
Select a community to browse its collections.